Becahi pair still alive into 2A finals

-- Bethlehem Catholic teammates Randy Cruz and Kyle Dehaut admitted they've given in to the temptation every now and then to envision themselves as state champions.

Today at the Giant Center, they will have a chance to make those visions realities.

Both won their semifinal matches Friday night at the PIAA 2A State Wrestling championships to become the only athletes from The Morning Call circulation area to advance to the finals.

Cruz, a 9-2 winner over Benton's Colt Cotten at 112 pounds and undefeated in this postseason, will oppose David White of Athens.

The sophomore is so much more relaxed in his second trip to states, mostly because he hasn't had to fight his way through any consolation matches, like he did on his way to a sixth-place finish a year ago.

''When you lose, you have to wrestle back right away,'' he said, ''and that sucks. It's great just being able to win and then have a lot of time off for your next match.''

Dehaut, a junior, put Burrell's Travis McKillop on his back in the first period and went on to record a 7-6 victory at 152 to earn a berth opposite Charleroi freshman Cody Wiercioch.

''That was huge because it set the tone for the whole rest of the match,'' Dehaut said of his early five-point move. ''It forced him to take the action to me, and I'm comfortable with my defense.''

McKillop was all arms and legs and had such a leverage advantage that Dehaut played it safe and started the third period neutral. He stayed off the bottom the whole match, with the exception of the takedown McKillop scored just before the buzzer ending the first period.

''I knew I didn't want to get under him because he has such long arms and he could shoot a cradle,'' Dehaut said. ''I knew if I could just wrestle my style, I could win.''

Even at the end, when McKillop was in on a deep shot, Dehaut didn't panic and simply sat on the mat to kill the last few seconds.

Mike Racciato came back to pin Michael DePalma of Jeannette to advance to the third-place match. Also working his way back to the consolation finals was Lakitsky, who scored a 5-1 decision over Penn Cambria's Zak Newton.

Bilotta and Williams will meet in the fifth-place match. Stevens, the Hedash brothers, Phil Racciato and Garner also will be going for fifth.

Welsh, Renda and DeLuise will be going for seventh place.

The Racciato brothers simply ran into slicker opponents in the semifinals.

Mike wasn't able to score an offensive point against Shady Side Academy's Frank Martelotti until the closing seconds of the match, when Martellotti showed him extreme respect by running at the end and giving up an easy takedown while being hit with a second stall warning to hold on for a 9-8 decision.

''That kid was backing up the whole match, actually,'' Pen Argyl coach Scott Kupec said. ''Mike's a tough character and I thought he forced the action the whole match.''

Phil was similarly stifled on his feet by South Fayette's Nick Carr, who clearly was more aggressive. Despite being blocked by a wizzer on his first three shots, he finally was able to get Racciato down with 8 seconds remaining in the first period.

Still, Racciato hung in until a four-takedown flurry in the third let Carr seal it.

''Phil could have beat him,'' Kupec said. ''He just didn't wrestle his best match. But he wrestled hard and now we're looking at third place.''

Lakitsky was dangerously close to being bounced out of the quarterfinals by Octorara's Nate Ronan. But a stall warning and a third caution called on Ronan helped push the match to overtime and eventually to a tiebreaker, where Lakitsky was able to get out and Ronan wasn't.

After dropping his semifinal match 7-2 to Towanda's Travis Chesla, Lakitsky rebounded with his win over Newton.

Satisfied as they all were to earn medals, none will stand higher on the podium today than Cruz or Dehaut.

Their visions are so much clearer now.

''Obviously you don't get there as a freshman by pure luck,'' Dehaut said of his finals opponent. ''He's good. But I can see where a championship is realistic.''